What is the origin of the knickerbocker glory?
I’ve just returned from a break in Edinburgh and, on the first night, I enjoyed a knickerbocker glory at a local Italian restaurant. This set me thinking about the origin of the dessert, so I looked it up on Wikipedia which states:
“A knickerbocker glory is a layered ice cream sundae that is served in a large tall conical glass, and to be eaten with a distinctive long spoon, particularly in Great Britain and Ireland.See alsoThe knickerbocker glory, first described in the 1920s, may contain ice cream, cream, fruit, and meringue. Layers of these different sweet tastes are alternated in a tall glass and topped with different kinds of syrup, nuts, whipped cream and often a cherry. The existence of these layers, which create red and white stripes, distinguishes the dish from a tall sundae and lends the knickerbocker glory its name. In the United States this dish is more commonly known as a parfait.
An early form of the knickerbocker glory is believed to have originated in New York in the early 1900s. The name knickerbocker (as it pertains to the dish) is thought to be named after The Knickerbocker Hotel in Manhattan, New York. During the early 1900s the hotel was pink-and-cream colored and well known to the denizens of New York. After it closed in 1920, a tall pink-and-cream colored dish was created in honor of the hotel and the word glory was appended to the name of the dish.
At some point in the 1920s the dish was introduced into the United Kingdom, where it attained great acclaim.”